Have you ever met the inhabitants of Koenigsberg? No, not the elderly German tourists, who come less frequently as time passes due to their unfortunate decrease in numbers. No, those who were already here before the frightening thirties and forties of the already past 20th century. Merry and joyful, wise and caring, young and happy. Always happy. Smiling at each other and at all of us. A tiny bit otherworldly, despite all their massive stone, losing touch with the flagstones that pave Chernyshevskii Street at the spot where it crosses Kommunalnaya Street, where a small sculpture of them is mounted at the corner of an old brick house.

I see them quite often. Every day, as I take my younger daughter to school, I pass by them. And also because I sometimes go there to photograph my favorite bas-reliefs at Kommunalnaya street.

Almost every time, I see this couple in a different way or find something new in them: a different lighting, a different season, a different mood. There is only one thing that never changes: the smile of the young woman who is looking at her young man. And the smile of the young man looking into the distance. And the smile with which I always look at them.